Gilligan received twenty-nine research referrals from abortion- and pregnancy-counseling centers. Although the women varied in age, education, marital status, and socioeconomic background, all were in the first trimester of their pregnancy and planning or considering an abortion. Gilligan was able to conduct extensive interviews with twenty-four of the women and successfully followed up with twenty-one of them a year later. As predicted, these women discussed their choice within a care orientation rather than a framework of justice. Over and over they used the words selfish and responsibility to explain their thinking. Responsibility was interpreted as exercising care; not being selfish meant not causing hurt.
Kohlberg assigned his six ordered stages to three levels of maturity: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional. Gilligan found evidence of a similar sequence within an orientation of care.